Frankenstein

1. Frankenstein Chapters 6-10

2. Chapter 6 • In her letter, Elizabeth updates Victor on his brothers, and says that Justine Moritz, a former servant of the Frankensteins, has come to live with them after the death of her mother. • The Frankenstein family continues to be blissful and innocent. • Victor introduces Clerval to his professors, but though they praise him, Victor finds anything connected with natural philosophy causes him distress. So he gives up such studies for a while, and studies Middle Eastern language with Clerval. • Victor's innocent joy in natural philosophy has been destroyed; now he seeks to isolate himself. • Near the end of term, as Victor and Clerval wait to travel back to Geneva, they take a tour around Germany which rekindles Victor's love of nature and raises his spirits. • Victor views nature as a Romantic poet would: sublime, impenetrable, free from the burdens of fallible human life. It provides him with relief.

3. Chapter 7 • On returning from the tour, Victor receives a letter from his father saying that his youngest brother, William, has been murdered. Shocked and upset, Victor and Clerval rush to Geneva. But the town gate is locked when they arrive. Victor visits the spot where his brother died. On the way he sees lightning playing over the peaks of the mountain Mont Blanc. • As family bliss and innocence are destroyed, Victor's descriptions of nature turn dark, reflecting his psyche. Lightning is a reminder of his earlier realization that mankind can never understand nature. It's a lesson he forgot, to his detriment. • Near where his brother died, Victor sees a figure resembling the monster. He realizes that the monster killed William, which means that he, Victor, is really responsible since he created the monster. • Victor realizes the cost of his arrogant assault on nature and begins to lose his innocence. And he realizes the monster is revenging itself on him.

4. Chapter 7-Continued • When Victor arrives home the next day, his brother Ernest tearfully informs him that Justine has been accused of William's murder: in her pocket the police found a portrait of Victor's mother that William had been wearing. • Victor, who thought himself a creator of life, is now responsible for the death of two innocents. • Victor announces to his family that Justine is certainly not guilty, but says no more since he fears anyone hearing his story would think him insane. But Victor is confident that Justine could not be convicted for a crime she did not commit by circumstantial evidence. • By concealing his role in William's death and Justine's fate, Victor isolates himself and must bear all the consequences of his ambition alone.

5. Chapter 8 • Victor wishes he could confess in Justine's place, but his absence at the time of the murder would make his confession sound like nonsense. • Victor could confess everything, including his secret, but instead he chooses silence and isolation. • At the trial, Justine maintains she is innocent, but cannot explain how William's portrait of his mother wound up in her pocket. She is sentenced to death. • The monster must have framed Justine as part of his revenge on Victor. • Victor speaks with a member of the court, who says that Justine has already confessed to the crime. Victor and Elizabeth visit Justine in prison, and she explains that she was pressured into confessing by her jailors. She succumbed, and confessed a lie. Justine says she's ready to die and leave behind the "sad and bitter world.“ • Justine confesses to a crime she did not commit, she gives up her innocent honesty, to "save" her soul. She has given up her innocence, and now no longer sees the world as innocent either.

6. Chapter 8 Continued • The next day Justine is executed. Victor feels guilt overwhelm him for his secret role in William's and Justine's deaths. • Victor now understands the grave consequences of his ambition, but he continues to keep his secret.

7. Chapter 9 • Victor despairs that his good intentions have resulted in such horror. Soon the Frankensteins go to their vacation home in Belrive to escape the bad memories of what's happened. Yet Victor still has thoughts of suicide and begins to desire revenge against the monster. • Victor's response to the monster's betrayal of him mirrors the monster's response to Victor's betrayal: both isolate themselves and seek revenge. • One day Elizabeth tells Victor that she no longer sees the world the same way after witnessing the execution of an innocent. • Elizabeth, for so long a perfect model of innocence, begins to lose her innocence.

8. Chapter 9 Continued • A while later Victor decides to travel to Chamonix, France, hoping the trip will provide relief from his "ephemeral, because human, sorrows." Along the way he gazes at waterfalls and the towering Mont Blanc. At times the sights remind him of happier times, but never for long. • A sentiment typical of Romantic literature: human concerns are "ephemeral," or short lived, whereas Nature is as enduring as God.

9. Chapter 10 • At Chamonix, Victor continues to feel despair. He again tries to escape it through nature: he climbs to the peak of a mountain called Montanvert. But just as the view begins to lift his spirits, Victor sees the monster. He curses it and wishes for its destruction. • Victor curses the monster without knowing its intentions, and without knowing for sure that the monster murdered William. He blames the monster, but he's responsible for its creation.

10. Chapter 10 Continued • But with great eloquence the monster claims to be Victor's offspring. "I ought to be thy Adam," it says. • Victor is a creator, but he is no god. He abandoned his creation. • The monster continues that it was once benevolent, and turned to violence only after Victor, its creator, abandoned it. It begs Victor to listen to its story. Victor, for the first time thinking about his responsibilities as a creator, follows the monster to a cave in the glacier, and sits down to listen. • The monster admits it took revenge, but claims that Victor destroyed its innocence by isolating it

11. Works Cited • "LitCharts | Frankenstein Study Guide." LitCharts| Frankenstein Study Guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.